1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a head recovery device and a head recovery method for recording means having a pigment ink discharge port for discharging pigment ink and a dye ink discharge port for discharging dye ink, and an ink jet recording apparatus for effecting recovery of such a head.
2. Related Background Art
Recording apparatus having a printer, copier or facsimile function or recording apparatuses used as a composite electronic equipment including a computer or a word processor or as an output device such as a work station serve to record an image (including a character and/or a symbol) on a recording material (recording medium) such as a paper, cloth, a plastic sheet or an OHP sheet on the basis of recording information. Among them, a recording apparatus of ink jet type (ink jet recording apparatus) serves to effect recording by discharging ink from recording means (recording head) and has advantages that the recording means can easily made compact, that a highly fine image can be recorded at a high speed, that the recording can be effected without requiring special treatment of a plain paper, that a running cost is cheap, that there is less noise due to non-impact printing and that a color image can easily be recorded by using many kinds of inks (for example, color inks).
As an energy generating element for generating energy utilized to discharge ink from a discharge port of an ink jet recording head, there is an element utilizing an electromechanical converting member such as a piezo-electric element, an element in which heat is generated by illumination of an electromagnetic wave such as laser and an ink droplet is discharged by such a heating action or an element in which liquid is heated by an electrothermal converting member having a heat generating resistance body. Among them, in the recording means (recording heads) of ink jet type for discharging the ink as a droplet by utilizing thermal energy, recording having a high resolving power can be realized since the discharge ports can be arranged with high density. Particularly among them, a recording head using the electrothermal converting element as the energy generating element is particularly advantageous, since it can easily be made compact, merits of an IC technique or a micro-working technique reliability of which has remarkably been enhanced in a recent semiconductor field can be well utilized, and high density mounting thereof is easy and a manufacturing cost thereof is inexpensive.
Further, many kinds of materials for the recording medium have been requested, and, in recent years, development for such requirement has been progressed, and some recording apparatuses can utilize cloth, leather non-woven fabric or metal as the recording material, as well as a paper (including thin paper and treated paper) and a thin resin plate (OHP sheet and the like) as normal recording material.
The recording apparatuses are generally grouped into a recording apparatus of serial type in which the recording is effected while performing main scanning in a direction perpendicular to a conveying direction of the recording paper (recording material) and a recording apparatus of line type in which the recording is effected by using a recording head having a predetermined length and held at a predetermined position to cover a range of a predetermined width (including whole width) in a width-wise direction of the recording paper. The present invention can be applied to any type of recording apparatus including such serial and line types. In the ink jet recording apparatus of serial type, normally, after the recording paper is set at a predetermined recording position, an image (including character and/or symbol) is recorded by the recording head mounted on a carriage shifting along the recording paper, and then predetermined amount paper feed (sub scanning) is effected, and, by repeating such operations, the entire image is formed on the recording paper.
In the above-mentioned ink jet recording apparatus, foreign matters such as ink droplets, debris, dirt and/or paper powder may be adhered to a head face of the recording head during the recording operation, and, thus, the head face is cleaned (for example, sliding swept) by a cleaning member to remove such foreign matters. Normally, a flexible member such as a rubber blade made of rubber elastic material is used as the cleaning member. Further, the ink near the discharge port may be dried to clog the discharge port due to increase in viscosity of ink and solidification and/or deposition of ink. Further, the discharge port may be clogged by a bubble and/or dirt generated within the interior of the discharge port (liquid path). As a method for recovering (prevention or elimination) such clogging, for example, a suction recovery method in which a sealingly closed system is formed around an ink discharge port portion by using a capping member and the ink is forcibly discharged from the discharge port by generating a negative suction force at the discharge port face (head face) by using a pump is adopted. Further, in order to remove the ink adhered to the head face by the suction recovery, the head face is cleaned (swept) by the cleaning member.
Now, a conventional head recovery device, head recovery method and ink jet recording apparatus in which head recovery is effected will be explained with reference to FIGS. 13 and 14.
FIG. 13 is a schematic front view of a head recovery device of a conventional ink jet recording apparatus, looked at from a forward direction, and FIG. 14 is a schematic side view of the head recovery device of FIG. 13, looked at from a side direction. In FIGS. 13 and 14, a black head (pigment ink head) 1A serves to discharge black pigment ink, a color head (dye ink head) 1B serves to discharge color (for example, cyan, magenta and yellow) dye inks, a main scanning carriage 2 serves to position and hold the black head 1A and the color head 1B, and main scanning rails 3 serve to guide and hold the main scanning carriage 2 for a reciprocal shifting movement in a direction A as a recording direction.
Further, a rubber cap (pigment ink head cap) 4A serves to form (cap) a sealingly closed system at a discharge port portion 1Aa of the black head 1A, and a rubber cap (dye ink head cap) 4B serves to form (cap) a sealingly closed system at a discharge port portion 1Ba of the color head 1B. These rubber caps 4A, 4B are positioned and held by a holder member (not shown) for shifting movements in a capping direction (shown by the arrow B) and a non-capping direction (shown by the arrow C) by means of driving sources (not shown), thereby constituting pigment ink head capping means and dye ink head capping means.
In FIGS. 13 and 14, cap absorption members 9A, 9B for absorbing and holding ink are disposed within the rubber caps 4A, 4B, respectively. Further, in order to prevent adhesion and deposition of viscosity-increased ink on the discharge port portions 1Aa, 1Ba, even during recording (print), preliminary discharge from the discharge ports is effected toward the cap absorption members 9A, 9B at a predetermined time interval. A black head (pigment ink head) suction pump (suction means) 5A and a color head (dye ink head) suction pump (suction means) 5B serve to effect suction recovery (recovery treatment) in which predetermined suction pressure (negative pressure) is generated at the discharge port portions 1Aa, 1Ba in a capping condition thereby to forcibly suck the ink from the discharge port portions 1Aa, 1Ba through first tubes 6A, 6B and to discharge the sucked ink to a waste ink treating member 8 through second tubes 7A, 7B. A black head (pigment ink head) cleaning member 10A and a color head (dye ink head) cleaning member 10B are formed from rubber material such as urethane, butyl or silicone, or porous sponge material.
The cleaning members 10A, 10B can be shifted in directions shown by the arrows D, E by means of driving sources (not shown), so that, when shifted in the direction D, these members slide on the head face including the discharge port portions 1Aa, 1Ba (broken line positions (1)xe2x86x92(2)xe2x86x92(3)), thereby effecting cleaning (sweeping cleaning). After the cleaning is finished, when the members are further shifted in the direction D, the cleaning members 10A, 10B abut against cleaners 11A, 11B (broken line position (4)). Due to such abutment, foreign matters such as ink droplet, debris, dirt and/or paper powder removed from the head face and adhered to the cleaning members 10A, 10B are transferred (transported) to the cleaners 11A, 11B for collection. In this case, the caps 4A, 4B of the capping means are shifted (retarded) in the direction C by the driving sources (not shown) to be retarded to positions where they do not interfere with the cleaning members 10A, 10B.
However, in the above-mentioned conventional head recovery device, head recovery method and ink jet recording apparatus for effecting such head recovery, although there is no problem regarding endurance of various parts of the apparatus when the ink of dye group (dye ink) is used, when the ink of pigment group (pigment ink) is used, since an elapsed time until the ink is viscosity-increased or solidified is shorter than that of the dye ink (i.e., prematurely viscosity-increased or solidified) and since cleaning ability for scraping (or sweeping) the ink by means of the cleaning member is worse than that when the dye ink is used, even if the cleaning is effected by sliding the cleaning member against the head face of the recording means, the ink will remain on the head face as a thin film and such ink be solidified, with the result that it is very hard to achieve the head recovery by the cleaning operation. Further, also when the ink scraped from the head face and adhered to the sliding portion of the cleaning member is collected in the cleaner, the ink cannot be collected in the cleaner completely, but remains on the cleaning member, and, since the remaining ink is solidified, the cleaning ability is worsened, thereby further progressing (worsening) the deposition of ink on the head face.
Due to such phenomena, depending upon the recovery operation in the ink jet recording apparatus, it will be very hard or impossible to the recover the pigment ink head thereby to reduce the service life of the pigment ink head, thereby causing a technical problem that the running cost is increased when the recording (print) is effected by using the pigment ink. Further, to avoid this, although it is considered that the cleaning is effected while supplying dissolving liquid for dissolving the pigment ink adhered to the cleaning member, in this case, the entire apparatus is made more bulky and the cost is increased.
An object of the present invention is to provide a head recovery device, head recovery method and ink jet recording apparatus, in which solidified and deposited pigment ink can be removed easily and positively by dissolving the pigment ink solidified and deposited on a pigment ink discharge port face (head face) and/or pigment ink discharge port cleaning means by means of dye ink.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a head recovery device of an ink jet recording apparatus having a pigment discharge port for discharging pigment ink and a dye ink discharge port for discharging dye ink, which recovery device comprises a pigment ink cleaning member capable of abutting against a pigment ink discharge port face in which the pigment ink discharge port is provided to effect cleaning of such a face, and a dye ink cleaning member capable of abutting against a dye ink discharge port face in which the dye ink discharge port is provided to effect cleaning of such a face, and is characterized in that, in a predetermined recovery operation, the dye ink discharged from the dye ink discharge port is applied to the pigment ink cleaning member.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a head recovery device of an ink jet recording apparatus having a pigment discharge port for discharging pigment ink and a dye ink discharge port for discharging dye ink, which recovery device comprises a pigment ink cleaning member capable of abutting against a pigment ink discharge port face in which the pigment ink discharge port is provided to effect cleaning of such a face, and a dye ink cleaning member capable of abutting against a dye ink discharge port face in which the dye ink discharge port is provided to effect cleaning of such a face, and is characterized in that, in a predetermined recovery operation, the pigment ink discharge port face is cleaned by at least one of the pigment ink cleaning member and the dye ink cleaning member, to which the dye ink discharged from the dye ink discharge port is applied.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet recording apparatus having a pigment discharge port for discharging pigment ink and a dye ink discharge port for discharging dye ink and comprising a pigment ink cleaning member capable of abutting against a pigment ink discharge port face in which the pigment ink discharge port is provided to effect cleaning of such a face, and a dye ink cleaning member capable of abutting against a dye ink discharge port face in which the dye ink discharge port is provided to effect cleaning of such a face, and wherein, in a predetermined recovery operation, the dye ink discharged from the dye ink discharge port is applied to the pigment ink cleaning member.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet recording apparatus having a pigment discharge port for discharging pigment ink and a dye ink discharge port for discharging dye ink and comprising a pigment ink cleaning member capable of abutting against a pigment ink discharge port face in which the pigment ink discharge port is provided to effect cleaning of such a face, and a dye ink cleaning member capable of abutting against a dye ink discharge port face in which the dye ink discharge port is provided to effect cleaning of such a face, and wherein, in a predetermined recovery operation, the pigment ink discharge port face is cleaned by at least one of the pigment ink cleaning member and the dye ink cleaning member, to which the dye ink discharged from the dye ink discharge port is applied.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a head recovery method in an ink jet recording apparatus having a pigment discharge port for discharging pigment ink and a dye ink discharge port for discharging dye ink, comprising the steps of abutting a pigment ink cleaning member against a pigment ink discharge port face in which the pigment ink discharge port is provided to effect cleaning of such a face, abutting a dye ink cleaning member against a dye ink discharge port face in which the dye ink discharge port is provided to effect cleaning of such a face, and applying the dye ink discharged from the dye ink discharge port to the pigment ink cleaning member.
The other object of the present invention is to provide a head recovery method in an ink jet recording apparatus having a pigment discharge port for discharging pigment ink and a dye ink discharge port for discharging dye ink, comprising the steps of abutting a pigment ink cleaning member against a pigment ink discharge port face in which the pigment ink discharge port is provided to effect cleaning of such a face, abutting a dye ink cleaning member against a dye ink discharge port face in which the dye ink discharge port is provided to effect cleaning of such a face, applying the dye ink discharged from the dye ink discharge port to at least one of the pigment ink cleaning member and the dye ink cleaning member, and cleaning the pigment ink discharge face by the cleaning member to which the dye ink was applied.
According to the present invention, by dissolving the pigment ink solidified and deposited on the pigment discharge port cleaning means and the discharge port face including the pigment ink discharge port by means of the dye ink, a head recovery device, head recovery method and ink jet recording head, in which the solidified and deposited pigment ink can be removed easily and positively, can be provided.